Whether you sleep completely naked or fully clothed, you surely regard sleep as sacred. It can make our days or break our nights.
Sweet dreams don’t always happen, but when they do, it’s blissful. Naturally, we turn to all sorts of products — from melatonin to weighted blankets to special teas — in attempt to facilitate more and better Zzzs.
If you do happen to be a person who bundles up before bed, though, you may just be doing yourself a disservice. Yes, there’s a simple way to encourage a restful eight hours: Simply sleep in your birthday suit.
Snoozing in the buff comes with all sorts of unexpected positives. It helps to lower your body’s core temperature and regulate its rhythm, making it easier to fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and enjoy all the fruitful rewards.
Yes, there’s a plethora of fringe benefits to sleeping in the nude — enough to make you toss those PJs and ditch those undergarments for good — well, at least during after hours.
Intrigued yet? Read on for all the surprising things that happen when you start sleeping naked.
You will fall asleep faster if you start sleeping naked
If you tend to stare up at the ceiling patiently (or impatiently!) waiting for the Sandman to sprinkle his magic sleep dust over your eyes every night, you know what we’re going to suggest: Sleep naked!
Felice Gersh, obstetrician-gynecologist, explained to Well + Good that “sleep onset is related to one’s temperature.” She continued, saying, “Being naked helps by lowering skin temperature, and that can facilitate sleep.” Yes, you can expedite your trip to dream land simply shedding your beloved flannel pajamas. What’s more, Dr. Jodie Horton, physician and chief advisor to health and lifestyle company Love Wellness, told the publication that women going through menopause may find this tip especially helpful, as “hot flashes and night sweats” can keep them up or prematurely wake them up.
And, in case you are wondering, you should try to set your bedroom temperature somewhere in the zone of 65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, as advised by Dr. Craig Heller, Stanford biology professor, in WebMD.
Your quality of sleep will improve when you start sleeping naked
If falling asleep when your head hits the pillow is the easy part, rest assured that sleeping naked can also help you achieve a better quality of sleep — and ensure that you stay snoozing for longer.
A 2012 study in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that “heat exposure increases wakefulness and decreases slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.” Yes, your sleep and awake time is all part of your circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that affects the proper functioning of your body — and even “small changes in body temperature can send a powerful signal to the clocks in our bodies,” Dr. Takahashi of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute told ScienceDaily.
Furthermore, as noted by Dr. Felice Gersh, obstetrician-gynecologist, “being naked keeps one cooler and avoids … [the] bunching up of sleeping garments,” (via Well + Good). If you’ve ever gotten a middle-of-the-night wedgie or found yourself all twisted up in your sleepshirt, you know exactly what Dr. Gersh is talking about.
Sleeping naked could help improve your mental health
Sometimes a good night’s sleep can be the answer to your worries and woes. If sleeping naked can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, it’s fair to say that skinny dipping in your sheets could make you a happier, more balanced, and adjusted person.
In fact, insomnia has been associated with multiple psychiatric disorders. “Some type of sleep difficulty occurs in as many of 90% of MDD [major depressive disorder] patients, a reported published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry revealed. Lack of sleep and depression go hand in hand; one might drive the other or vice versa, according to WebMD.
The health site noted that it’s harder to effectively treat psychological conditions without also addressing sleep issues. One of the first steps to combat anxiety and depression is to establish healthy sleep habits. As deduced by Healthline, sleeping naked could actually help improve your sleep patterns, thus reducing anxiety and stress, and potentially even helping to lift some level of depression.